Black Power 1970In 1970, Raffique Shah was a young soldier who was part of a mutiny at Teteron. Today, he is a writer and union leader. This is his story as he reminisces about the events of the 1970 Black Power period. — 2000

Waste worse than corruption - March 25, 2016A recent World Bank report ranked Trinidad and Tobago as the country that generates the most "municipal solid waste", on a per capita basis, in the world.

Don't take Mittal's mill even for free - March 16, 2016Trinidadians are hell, I tell you. Take their almost instantaneous sympathy with the 600-odd steel workers who found themselves jobless last week when ArcelorMittal shut down its plant in this country.

Rating Rowley's Government - March 11, 2016I am relieved to learn that the Cabinet "retreat" in Tobago last weekend did not have as a main item on its agenda achievements of the not-so-new Government during its first six months in office.

Bankers and Bandits - March 4, 2016I don't know if we should be more afraid of banks and bankers or bandits and murderers. Seriously.
Both strike when we are most vulnerable. They relieve us of our life's savings, of what we have worked tirelessly to provide for our families, with a callousness that is chilling.

Rodney's ghost haunts Guyana - Februry 24, 2016The findings of a Commission of Inquiry into the murder of Guyanese intellectual and political activist Dr Walter Rodney, 36 years ago, are an indictment not only against the Forbes Burnham dictatorship that ruled Guyana for 21 horrible years, but also other Caricom governments and countries that never condemned Burnham's atrocities.

Of sensuality and vulgarity - Februry 16, 2016I wonder if the wide spectrum of persons who have used the words "misogyny" and "misogynic" to describe ex-Port of Spain Mayor Raymond Tim Kee following his asinine statements on the murder of pannist Asami Nagakiya either believe what they are saying, or understand the definitions of the words?

Carnival in transition - Februry 9, 2016I don't think Trinidad's Carnival is dying, as many people say it is.
For the traditionalists, it's a case of wishful thinking. They want to see the jarring noise that passes for music, songs that have no melody, only hook lines and tempo, consigned to the dustbin of Carnival history.

Man, mosquito and money - Februry 2, 2016In this space yesterday, Dr Sherene Kalloo launched a broadside against Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and his almost jokey war against the Zika virus, pre-empting a column I had already half-written, titled "Man vs Mosquito".

Deliver us from evil - January 27, 2016It occurred to me some hours after I heard the news that gunmen had murdered two Laventille schoolboys that I felt no emotions over the dastardly act.

Destiny in our hands - January 27, 2016As a nation, we can do nothing about the plunging price of oil except watch with alarm as crude slides below US $30 a barrel.

Humility was Jit's hallmark - January 11, 2016'I don't know who Jit Samaroo was, but listening to others speak, he must have been a great man...my condolences to his family.'

Aging in this cussed country - January 4, 2016In a few months, I shall cross another threshold of aging, scoring seventy years of life and officially transitioning into the status of "old geezer".

'do so ent like so' - December 29, 2015I am surprised that so many people are surprised by the termination of services-firing, suspension, the euphemistically-couched "sent on administrative leave"-of several senior government officials, the most prominent being Governor of the Central Bank, Jwala Rambarran.